Grand Canyon part 1

I had a wonderful time! On Thursday, March 13^th, I flew from Louisville, KY, through Cleveland, OH, to Phoenix, AZ. My rental car was upgraded to a PT Cruiser (pastel yellow – that was interesting), and I drove down to Mike and Kylie’s place in Sierra Vista, where I stayed that night. I was warmly received and had fun witnessing as Kylie threw a water bottle at Mike’s back and he later spewed his mouthful of water all over her, both laughing all the while. I had my first clutzy experience of the trip that night when I picked up a melted candle and dripped wax all over the oven. So we all got familiar with each other quickly as we laughed quite a bit, then went to bed.

 

On Friday I went with Mike to the army base where he works. We spent a lot of the day joking around with his fellow soldiers (we put our lives in their hands???), which was a lot of fun. We had to stay on base longer than Mike had anticipated. We spent some of our time in the on-base store, where I bought a wonderful pair of gloves – both thin and weather resistant/warm. And later we found that Mike had to stay on base because he was receiving a new assignment. He will be driving his superiors around. This may sound boring, but it gives him a great opportunity. His superiors will get to know him, and this exposure could get him promoted much more quickly. The fact that they specifically chose him as a driver because of his excellent work so far (as opposed to “his work is shoddy, so we’ll just have him drive”) also points this direction. It was pretty cool to be there on the day when Mike was given this important new assignment.

 

Friday evening we ate supper together. After a while sitting together in front of the TV, we went to Outback Steakhouse to eat dessert. It was wonderful. My dessert was some sort of chocolate wonder, but Mike got to hassle the waitress a bit (in jest) when he discovered that his desired dessert was unavailable. We met three of Mike’s army companions at the restaurant and had some light conversation. We also entered into some deeper discussions, the most memorable of which had to do with the ongoing war in (not against) Iraq.

 

That pretty much concluded my visit with Mike and Kylie, though. The next morning I drove back to Phoenix early so that I could meet up with Dad Wetmore and Daniel. The timing worked out perfectly, and we were soon on the road to the Grand Canyon in a much smaller rental, a Toyota Yaris. We managed to fit ourselves and everything in and had a fun drive. At one point we plowed into an enormous tumbleweed that rolled across the road – and found (fortunately!) that tumbleweeds are very light and weak; we smashed it to pieces, and later had the pleasure of watching an SUV do the same thing! On our way, we stopped to buy food for the week – lots of granola bars, cans of chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, bread… and one box of oreos. With the food taken care of, we continued into nowhere and eventually arrived at the Grand Canyon.

 

It grew colder as we set up camp. And we discovered something important. I had borrowed a two-person tent for Daniel and me. Instead of being 6’ by 5’, this tent (Walmart brand, Ozark Trails) was 5’8” by 4’8”. Believe it or not, Daniel and I managed to sleep through the night – and the next night – in that tent together. But again, it was cold. It snowed that night.